NPS commits $450 mn to Stonepeak, Macquarie infra funds

The National Pension Service has committed a total of $450 million to two North America-focused funds launched by Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners and Macquarie Infrastructure Partners. 

New York-based Stonepeak received $250 million from the South Korean pension scheme last year, while Australia-based Macquarie drew $200 million, according to sources with knowledge of the matter on Jan. 11. It was first reported by the Maeil Business Newspaper.

With the US government widely expected to open its purse strings for infrastructure investment under Joe Biden's presidency, both infrastructure funds target annual returns of around 10%.

The funds are new vehicles of Stonepeak and Macquarie, already in the pool of managers entrusted by the NPS with global investments. The $700 billion pension has participated in their prior funds.

In particular, Stonepeak received $100 million in a commitment from Korea Post last month.

Given the difficulty of carrying out onsite due diligence on overseas investments, NPS and other Korean pension funds turned toward making additional investments through their existing managers' new vehicles, unless their performance lagged their benchmarks.

Korea's top financial regulators appeared to have relaxed their grip on follow-on investments in managers already mandated by domestic institutions, market sources said. 

Stonepeak Infrastructure focuses on US middle-market infrastructure and manages over $29 billion of capital for its investors. Reportedly, Stonepeak sought to raise $10 billion for its fourth fund last year, while Macquarie Infrastructure planned to raise $5 billion for a new North America infrastructure fund.

The two infrastructure funds chase logistics, telecommunications, utilities, water treatment and transportation facilities in long-term leases.

Write to Jung-hwan Hwang at jung@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.